The skies are gray and threatening as we set off on our way to Argentina. Soon we have reached and passed the Chilean part of the border and then we get surprised by the big stretch of no-mans land – 44 km s across an alpine pass with snow falling and lots of the cold whit stuff all the way around – so when we finally reach the second half of the frontier we are wet and frozen to the bones. I am as usual quite excited and a bit apprehensive when reaching a new country especially since we...

So now we are in Chile ... it took almost 24 hours to get here and technically we actually arrive prior to departure from Sydney ... The flight was an ordeal ... after a sleepless night in Christchurch due to the fear of not hearing the mobile phone alarm clock and getting absolutely peed off because of the NZ customs stealing our camping stove we then arrive in Sydney where we are imprisoned in the transit area for 5 hours with no smoking room (I know that the Non smoking fraction of you feels...

South Island Well I was ever so wound up before we got onto the ferry and then the wind has died down and we had such a quiet and calm crossing - that's the reason why I'm a pessimist - you can actually only be pleasantly surprised .... Unfortunately, however, it has already gone dark and we have no idea where to head for. Well, it’s only today we don’t have a plan after that we know where we want to go: in the direction of Abel Tasman National Park, but that is tomorrow…. Not a chance of...

We arrive in Christchurch at 1.10 am have a good laugh coming off the plane, there are posters of sheep and pastures all the way inside and instead of annoying piped music we are greeted with lots of coming from the speakers – naturally I think of all the Kiwi and sheep jokes, we were told in OZ (similar to the Welshman/sheep jokes) Customs are nowhere near as bad as we thought they would be and I think they are just as tired as we are. I have filled in the arrival cards cautiously and ticked...

After 2 nights in Nimbin, the hippie capital of Australia, we wander on - it is more hippie circus with hemp leaves on each shop sign and it looks like we are pretty much the only ones here who were not looking for marijuana – one only needs to look at the prices of tobacco to realize that those kinds of smoke wares would be well outside our budget ...... We are now heading for Byron Bay, the most easterly point of Australia so we have to pay it a visit. Now we can say we were in the...